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All Together Now

Monday, November 19

Hey friends!

I've shared snippets of my bedroom over the past few months but have yet to post photos of the room in its entirety. Now that my headboard project is finally complete, I thought I would show you the whole room and share some of the little storage solutions I came up with.

First, a little backstory is probably necessary. This won't be surprising to those of you who know me in real life (or who have read this post), but for anyone new, hopefully this will give you some context. I've recently moved back to my parents' house temporarily. My plan is to be here for a year, pay off some student debt without incurring any more, and figure out what I want to do next. I've been in grad school for the last five years, and although it took me awhile to realize it, it never felt quite right. Not like me. So I decided to take a break, move back home, and see if I can find something out there that I like doing more than what grad school was training me to do. I'm lucky enough to have a super amazing family who may have privately thought I was crazy but were always vocally supportive of me following my heart. So basically, I've condensed my one-bedroom apartment life into a one-bedroom-no-apartment life. And I couldn't be happier :)

Even though this space is temporary (and very small), it was really important to make it feel like my own if I'm going to be happy here for a year. I basically emptied the room of everything that had been in it while I was away (My parents were using it as a guest bedroom). The only parts I couldn't change were the wall colour (out of respect for my Mom, who loves it), the mirror (which was hardcore bolted into the wall), and the closet door. If it were a more permanent space, I would probably paint the walls a charcoal grey, but for now, this purpley-grey from my teenage years will do just fine ;) Here are a few "before" pictures. I forgot to take them before the room was completely emptied - but this will give you an idea of the space.

View from hallway

Apparently, my camera lens was dirty.... Oops!

Old box spring I had yet to move.

Here is the after, filled with the minimal furniture that I kept from my apartment. The desk and dresser were Habitat for Humanity Restore finds in Windsor. The desk is actually next on my major project list. The desk chair was a Kijiji find, also in Windsor, that I sprayed pink (and needs to be touched up, thanks to moving damage). Bed linens are HomeSense. Pillows are Ikea & Home Outfitters. Curtains are Wicker Emporium. Lamps are HomeSense. Art is from Etsy, Wall Blank, and HomeSense clearance section (of all places).

In the photo below, you can see that some of my art is hung fairly high up. I initially intended to hang the frames a little lower but realized that because of the minimal pass-by space at the end of the bed, I would have knocked the frames off the wall every time I walked by if they weren't up high enough.

I love the way this space feels now. It's colourful and girly and exactly what I wanted. I think that people too often underestimate the impact their environment has on their moods and they don't make temporary spaces their own. It was fairly easy to make this room feel like my space, and yet when I leave, my family will be able to revert it back to a guest room with minimal work.

Here are a couple of storage solutions I came up with:

(1) Hair products/Toiletries/Etc. are kept in the rolling cart on the left, updated in this post.
(2) Although not a storage solution, the shelves were part of the original decor and couldn't be removed due to chipped paint underneath. I updated them with decorative paper here.
(3) The dresser houses casual clothes and fabric boxes underneath hold socks/etc.

(4) Low fabric box holds hair tools and slides under bed easily.

(5) Low Rubbermaid container, without lid (originally meant for gift wrap, I believe) holds all of my bags and slides easily under the bed.

(6) Over-the-door hooks hold all of my scarves.

(7) Jewelry is stored on hooks and in a desk drawer, as shared in this post.

(8) Makeup is stored in jars & a bowl underneath the window, as shared in this post.

(9) More clothes (& shoes) in the closet. In order to illuminate the dark inner corner, I mounted an inexpensive halogen light that you press to turn on.

So, that's my bedroom! Very colourful, very feminine, very me (at this point in time, haha). Hope you liked it!